ofus. >>we learned in today's news conference more of the effort that went into saving his life. one doctor said five times the amount of blood the average human body holds is what they needed to use in this operation. more than highland hospital has. things were frontic for a while. at one point the red cross had to put blood in a taxi and send it to the hospital to make sure they had enough. >> you can see the enormous stress of this past week in her face. >> absent lewolutely. >> garvin, thanks. >>> we are following developing news as a raging fire is tearing through a large home in pleasant hill in contra costa county. flames broke out about an hour ago seen first near the garage in the front of the house. soon after, firefighters were spotted on the roof breaking through it with tools. no word on whether anyone was inside the home when the fire started. we'll have more information on it as we get it. >>> some bizarre claims tonight from the man who may hold the key to an east bay killing spree. the man who lives at the house where two of the victims were found made his first cou

there's still a chance you can get around the back up. >>> good morning. thanks forjoiningus. i'mlaura garcia-cannon. >> and i'm garvin thomas in for brent cannon. the time is now 5:00. we're going to get to rob in just a second, but we have an update on a story we brought you in the last half hour about power outages in san francisco. pg&e now tells us about 4,600 people living in the western addition area of the city don't have power at the moment. they say they will turn the lights back on hopefully between now and 6:00 a.m. >> get to sleep in a little bit. maybe pull the blankets over your head a little bit, a little cool out there this morning, rob. >> it is. and some folks may want to hang on to that for the afternoon as well. we've got some cool temperatures and this is what's getting my attention this morning. take a look at the radar. we're firing it up this morning to show you some rain mainly off to our north, but that frontal system there is providing enough lift to the low clouds this morning to drop drizzle for your morning commute. we've got 50s and 60s for the m

willuseherpopulation and influence in six states where democratic candidates are in a little bit of trouble. this as lisa murkowski is being accused of trying to split up the republican party in alaska by running as a write-in candidate to save her senate seat. then, of course, there's delaware, where christine o'donnell says she's taking advice on all the controversy surrounding her from sarah palin. we're going to have more on all of this coming up in just a couple of minutes. >>> talking about controversy, also had that bitter custody battle between mel gibson and his ex-girlfriend, oksanna aggressivera. the actor apologized for his behavior in those intimate phone conversations. why is so much of their dirty laundry being aired so publicly and is oksanna behind it all? this morning for the first time, her attorneys speak out. >>> and on tuesday we told you about that british girl who just won the title of america's perfect teen. so how do her fellow contestants feel about that? we'll hear from them and talking to that win withing teen from wales as she joins for a live interv

joining here. and he's going to talktousaboutthe difficulty of investigating a case lake this. thank you very much, trent. >> you're very welcome. this is definitely a very complex investigation, because what you're doling with is hercules pd dealing with the initial homicide, which has taken place. there's been multiple people who have come up missing, who were located deceased from a california highway patrol perspective. we were involved in a police chase, which ended in the suspect being shot. >> reporter: now, you told me just a few minutes ago that the suspect's girlfriend you found -- not you, but your agency found in the car, and it looked like she was not only strangled, but perhaps beaten as well. >> yeah, she did suffer fatal injuries and appeared as though she had some severe facial damage to go along with some severe injuries around her neck. so right now we're not 100% certain as to how she was killed, but strangling was probably a strong possibility. >> so you have all been here at the scene since last night. is this typical of an investigation like this? >> yeah, abso

what a way to end the summer. a hot, sunny day for most of the bay. don't gettoousedtoit, if anything this year has proven, once you get used to something it's going to change and a cool change is coming our way. a significant temperature drop in the next few days, rob is swreho to show what to expect. hey, rob. >>> this summer, it seems like we've only had five or six hot days and today was one of them. san jose, 92 degrees. it is scorching around the south bay. look at the humidity, way down and bone dry, 13%. as we head north, winds are picking off and we're cooling off at 83 degrees. san francisco, the sea breeze is cranking up. you can see 79 degrees and northwest wind at 17 miles an hour an the fog that's moving up around slee pass in area. the low to the north will drop the temperatures big-time and may toss drizzle our way. we'll have a look at the rapid changes coming your way in a few minutes. tom? >>> thank you, for california law enforcement this labor day has been busier than last. too many people are drinking and driving. as of this morning, california offic

city do an amazing job, but there needs to be a balance in termsofusdoinga better job in terms of evaluating teachers, also management doing a better job in terms of saying let's help train teachers up and if they can't do the job, don't let them have automatic tenure. >> there's a new movie out called "waiting for superman" it wa paints a dismal picture of education in this country. teachers unions are set up to protect their members to the detriment of learning, why is that an unfair assessment. >> i could go through it factually, i don't want to do that. this is what i was concerned about about that movie. there are thousands of public schools in the united states of america that do a great job. should we all be doing a better job? absolutely, yes. i saw your interview with the president yesterday, matt, i agreed with everything the president said, we all have to do a better job, the mayor is right, the global economy is really different. schooling is different today than when you and i went to school. the thinking skills are things that all kids need right now. the bottom l

where that escalade is. kris sanchezjoinsuslivefrom richmond this morning, where police gunned the suspect down. kris, how are officers really trying to untangle this web of crime? >> you know, it's difficult. they're trying to make sure they stay in constant communication with all of the different agencies, five of them in all, that are investigating this case. you mentioned that white escalade. that is still missing and is at large. but we do know that the vehicle that the suspect was in last night was crashed right into the front of this 99 ranch market here in richmond. inside that vehicle, another gruesome finding. chp officers found the body of a young asian woman. they checked for a pulse, there was no pulse, and at that point, it looked like she was beyond help. they say it looks like she was badly beaten and strangled. likely, that is the cause of death. chp officers are not releasing her name right now, but they do say that they believe she was the girlfriend of the suspect, efren valdemoro. now officers say that he crashed his car here after leading chp officers on t

a guardrail sliced right through his suv. he survived, and he'll be talkingtousaboutthat coming up this morning. now, matt, back to you at the white house. >> thanks very much. we've got a lot to get to. first, let's go back inside studio 1a. tamron hall has all the headlines. >>> we began with more flooding in parts of the midwest. a levee is leaking in portage, wisconsin. some people have been evacuated. officials say if more evacuations are needed residents will have to get out by boat. people in minnesota are also dealing with major flood damage. >>> today a panel appointed by president obama starts its investigation into the bp oil spill in the gulf of mexico and the administration's response to it. >>> hyundai is recalling more than 139,000 sonata sedans sold in the u.s. because of potential steering wheel problems. the recall involves 2011 sonatas built before september 10th. >>> with the summer driving season now over, gas prices are holding steady, according to the lundberg survey. the average price for regular, now $2.69 a gallon. >>> comcast chief operating officer, stev

the festival to the northbound lanes of columbus avenue insteadofusingwashingtonsquare park. they want to restore the italian heritage to the festival and avoid the $23,000 cost of the permit to use the park. it's gone up considerably because the care of the park required after the event. >>> more ships, more sailors, more marines and more free family-friendly events promise to make this year's fleet week something to see. the event is still a month away but preparations are under way. you can help out. here to tell us about it, is ed flowers with the organizing committee. thanks for joining us so early. let's get excited about it. tell me what's new about fleet week. >> fleet week, there are a lot of great things going on. as usual, we'll have the blue angels and static displays of military equipment and a parade of ships this year's focus is going to be on something more serious and vital to the bay area. as we know, living here in this wonderful bay area, the great earthquake is coming. this year we planned in actual practice with the military, with the navy and marines who will be

farewell. then as the cameras rolled, he slowly came back to life and the whole family iswithusforan exclusive interview today, friday, september 3rd, 2010. captions paid for by nbc-universal television >>> and good morning. welcome to "today." it's 7:00 a.m. on this west coast morning. they are looking at west coast time and that is cape hatteras in north carolina. i'm matt lauer. >> pretty rolling out there. i'm ann curry in for meredith. good morning, everybody. here on the east coast, as you were mentioning, earl has >> this morning the storm's outer bands stretch from north carolina all the way up the coast into pennsylvania andp ne jersey. fortunately the eye has so far remained offshore. that's good news. >> top winds are 105 miles per hour. it was downgraded to a category 2 from a 4 overnight, so, so far the storm surge has been minor and the flooding minimal. cape cod and nantucket are in its sights and are expected to get hurricane-force winds later today. >> we've got the storm covered all up and down the east coast this morning. let's start with al roker. he's in

with a break-in. >> theyhitushard.i had four guitars stolen. i had both of our laptops, i had my grammy medal stolen. >> reporter: flynn earned a grammy nomination for his band machinehead for the 2007 release "the blackening." he believes whoever did this knew what was inside his home. one was a mini-guitar he gave to his eldest son. the other, the one he wrote songs and toured with back in 1994. >> the other one was a washburn dymbolt that was given to me by the late dimebag darrell. this guitar was incredibly sentimental. >> reporter: he says one neighbor saw a couple of suspicious cars in the neighborhood. >> we have one tip from the corner here, a green/teal american-made pickup truck that drove very slowly up around the corner, came back, drove very slowly. >> reporter: flynn is hoping that a tip and fingerprints taken from two remaining guitars leads to an arrest. he is offering a reward for each guitar. cheryl hurd, nbc bay area news. >>> time is 4:38. time to check the commute with mike. some more construction in the east bay. >> yeah this is not a sig-alert but a full closure,

the execution. the attorney can ask theninthu.s. circuitcourt of appeal to overturn the judge's decision. live in san francisco, nbc bay area news. >> thank you. as that case moves forward, another high profile one is now on hold. the case against the convicted rapist accused of kidnapping jaycee dugard. his attorney brought up concerns about her china's mental state and the judge agreed. garrido and his wife nancy are accused of kidnapping jaycee doing a arrested and holding her captive for 18 years. his attorney insisted faye the suspension is only a minor delay in the case. >> what i want to make really clear is that this is a fundamental fairness issue. it has nothing to do with the defense. that's really importan somebody read that i was claiming a defense. that is not the case. >> the case against garrido's wife has not been halted. >>> serious heat making a big comeback. this week we could be on track to break some weather records. our meteorologist is live with a look at how hot things could get. >> when you know they send the weather person outside to see how hot it will be arou